Baggage Check Read Online Free PDF

the zipper, and opening the door a little to let in light from the hallway, she was able to get her bag open. The contents swam in her vision; something was not right. Something had been moved, she saw right away. The clothes around the edges of the case were still rolled up neatly, but in the middle, underneath the pajamas she had slid in herself this morning, they were sloppier. She pulled out the pajamas and saw her sundress had been moved to cover something foreign.
    Rebecca opened the bedroom door another few inches to cast more light, and Beth snuffled and rolled over in her sleep. When she crept back to the bed and reached for the new item in her bag, her fingers touched something velvety and soft. When she picked it up, it was solid underneath and heavy.
    Her first thought was that there had been a mistake at security. Several of those guys had seemed extra shifty and weird today. But these were her pajamas, just as she’d worn them the night before. What the hell? It was some kind of velvet bag with drawstrings at the top and something bulky inside. She took the bag out of her suitcase and down the hall to the bathroom, where she could look at it in the light.
    The bag was deep-purple velvet, with a lavender feather embroidered across the front. Oh, shit. Valerie. For a moment, she hoped that it had simply been a late-night mistake on Valerie’s part, but when she reached into the bag, the note she found dispelled all confusion. Under the note, her fingers brushed something rubbery and firm, and she cringed. She was able to open the bag wide enough to see without taking it out: it was a full-sized, hot-pink, penis-shaped vibrator.
    Rebecca sat down on the toilet, dazed. What am I going to do with this? I’m sharing a room with Beth. What if she finds it and thinks I’m a pervert? I could just kill Valerie. She thought about just throwing it in the bathroom trash next to her, but the bag had THE PURPLE FEATHER, SAN FRANCISCO stitched in bold letters under the feather logo. Kate and Beth shared this bathroom with her, and everyone knew she’d been in San Francisco the night before.
    It would have to go back to her suitcase, she decided, and she would bury it under everything else, along with the note. It was in Valerie’s neat cursive, on hotel stationery, with an insipid smiley face at the bottom. “Kid, you need this more than anyone I’ve ever met. Enjoy your vacation. ‘Come’ back rested. Ha, ha.—V”
    *   *   *
    Everyone in the house slept in the following morning, except Marci, who emerged from her room fully showered and dressed, while the other girls were still lounging in their pajamas and nursing the coffeepot. Even though she hadn’t drunk much, and had clearly risen early, Marci looked almost as tired as everyone else. Suzanne was the worst off, and wore dark glasses even on the living-room couch, clinging to her coffee cup like a life preserver. We should get her a nap, Rebecca thought.
    Kate and Beth were at the kitchen table, where they had cleared the empty cups and bottles from the previous night and were now idly flipping through magazines and tourist brochures. Rebecca filled a coffee cup and joined them. She watched as Marci plopped down beside Suzanne on the couch, and they both stared straight at the television, which no one had yet bothered to turn on.
    â€œWhat’s your excuse?” Suzanne muttered eventually.
    â€œWhat?” Marci said.
    â€œYou look like shit,” Suzanne said.
    â€œUh, thanks? I can always count on you for a lift.”
    â€œNo, really. You look tired. But you barely touched a drink last night.”
    A smile flitted across Marci’s lips, but she contained it. By now the other two girls had tuned in to the conversation. “I think you drank enough for both of us, my friend.”
    â€œSo. What’s. Your. Excuse?” Suzanne repeated. Rebecca wondered why she was grilling